New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast

Updated 8:36 AM ET, Tue November 13, 2012

New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast 8 photos

The Middle East's turbulent modern history -- most recently, the events of the Arab Spring -- has inspired a generation of photographers from the region who are gaining global recognition. Now, a new exhibition at London's Victoria & Albert Museum, "Light from the Middle East," is celebrating their diverse and challenging work. On display is everything from photojournalism to fine art photography and the museum says it hopes to showcase the full range of emerging talent -- artists documenting the complexities and contradictions of a region in the grip of change. This 2006 photograph is taken from a series by Iranian photojournalist Newsha Tavakolian called "Mothers of Martyrs," which features mothers with framed portraits of their sons who died in the Iran-Iraq war.

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New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast 8 photos

'Bodiless I' from the series 'Zourkhaneh Project (House of Strength)' by Mehraneh Atashi (2004) Award-winning Iranian artist Mehraneh Atashi documents typically unseen aspects of life in her country. For this project, she gained the confidence of members of the "zourkhaneh" -- the all-male Iranian gymnasium -- to become one of the few women permitted to enter the gym. Atashi used mirrors to insert her own image into the series.

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New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast 8 photos

'The break' from the series 'Upekkha' by Nermine Hammam (2011)Nermine Hammam created these images by digitally layering photographs she took of soldiers in Tahrir Square onto postcard settings, far away from the violence of the Arab Spring. In doing so, the Egyptian designer and artist says she hoped to transport the soldiers to somewhere they would rather be.

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New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast 8 photos

'Wonder Beirut #13, Modern Beirut, International Centre of Water-Skiing,' from the series 'Wonder Beirut' by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (1997-2006) Inspired by finding that postcards depicting pre-civil war Beirut were still on sale after the war ended in 1990, Lebanese filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige invented a fictional photographer named Abdallah Farrah to document the city's downfall. The duo claim the images were created after violence erupted in 1975 -- when Farrah partly destroyed photographic negatives he had taken for the Lebanese tourist board.

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New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast 8 photos

'Airmail' from the series 'Out of Line' by Jowhara AlSaud (2008)Saudi artist Jowhara AlSaud scratched the outline of a snapshot photograph into the emulsion of a large-format film cell in order to create this image. She explores Saudi Arabia's ban on depicting personal imagery -- and, she says, censorship more generally -- by removing faces, often from members of the Saudi Diaspora.

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New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast 8 photos

'Saida in Green' by Hassan Hajjaj (2000) Artist Hassan Hajjaj moved to London from Larache, Morocco when he was 14, immersing himself in London's music and fashion scenes before returning to North Africa. In his work, he merges Middle Eastern fashion with global brands, using found materials, he says, to play with European stereotypes of North Africa.

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New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast 8 photos

From the series 'Qajar' by Shadi Ghadirian (1998) In "Qajar," Tehran-based art photographer Shadi Ghadirian recreates 19th century Iranian studio portraits. By adding incongruous modern day accessories, she hopes to shed light on the fight between tradition and modernity faced by Iran's women.

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New generation of photographers capture turbulent Mideast 8 photos

Detail from the series 'The Yemeni Sailors of South Shields' by Youssef Nabil (2006)Cairo-born Youssef Nabil hand colours his black-and-white photographs to create portraits reminiscent of the film posters produced during the golden age of Egyptian cinema in the 1950s. In 2006, he photographed elders from the Yemeni community of South Shields, north-east England -- giving the portraits added glamour through the association with "Hollywood on the Nile" era media. Gallery compiled by Matt Ponsford, for CNN